Journal
What belongs on a 13-week cash panel
A cash panel that tries to show every supplier and every standing order becomes a second cash book. Here is the short list we keep, and the lines we send to the appendix.
The 13-week cash panel exists for one job: to show whether the practice or the client can meet wages, VAT, and the known large bills without a surprise call to the bank. It is not a replacement for the cash book, and it should not try to be.
We put receipts in three bands only: fees collected, other income, and a single line for anything that is neither. Splitting receipts by partner, by office, or by service line belongs in a different meeting. On a 13-week sheet those splits make the eye hunt and the conversation stall.
Payments get more room because they are where the strain lives. Wages, PAYE, VAT, rent, the known tax payments, and a grouped ‘rest of trade creditors’ are usually enough. If a single supplier can break the week — a large counsel fee, a fit-out invoice, a tax payment on account — it earns its own row for those weeks only, then returns to the group.
Opening bank should be the actual cleared balance on the Monday you draw the panel, not the book balance from last month’s accounts. Practices that skip this step spend the first ten minutes of the huddle reconciling a number nobody trusts.
What we leave off: colour for ‘good’ and ‘bad’ weeks, sparklines that repeat the same columns, and a forecast that pretends unbilled WIP will turn into cash on a fixed day. If collection is uncertain, show a range for that week or leave a note under the grid. A false peak is worse than a blank.
Before we draw, we ask who will update the panel. If the answer is ‘whoever has time’, we shorten the column set until it can be rebuilt from two exports. A panel that needs a morning to refresh will be out of date by the second month.